How Sports Massage and Chiropractic Treatment Complement Each Other
Around 20 percent of Americans participate in some type of sport, recreational activity or exercise. On average, Americans spend 5.25 hours a day on leisure and sports activities.
There are several benefits of an active lifestyle. Daily physical activity can help prevent heart disease, strengthen bones and muscles, and boost endorphins relieving stress and boosting mood.
Sports injuries can occur during regular exercise or while playing a sport. Chiropractic and sports massage therapy can help prevent injuries.
What is Sports Massage?
Sports massage works by stretching tight and stiff muscles and stimulating inactive muscles.
It was developed to strengthen and increase the flexibility of muscle systems used for different sports. An experienced therapist will customize sports massage to fit your specific goals and requirements.
Sports massage can improve athletic performance, boost endurance, reduce risk of injuries, and recovery time after an injury. It can also reduce stress and toxins that can build up in the soft tissues during exercise.
Therapists use a variety of approaches to help athletes prepare the body before and during sports events and recover after a sports injury. Pre-event sports massage helps warm up muscles, reduce tension, and stimulate the flow of nutrients and blood to the muscles.
Post-event sports massage can help reduce swelling caused by microtraumas, maintain flexibility, reduce cramping, and remove waste and lactic acid build-up due to intense activity. It also relaxes tired and stiff muscles and speeds up recovery from injuries.
In addition to helping prevent muscle soreness and injuries and fast-tracking injury recovery, sports massage can improve your heart rate and blood pressure and lymph flow.
Sports Massage Techniques
Some common sports massage techniques include soft tissue release (involves pinning and stretching muscles and tissues), positional release(relaxes hyperactive muscles), neuromuscular technique (targets trigger points in the nervous system to ease pain and tension) and fascial release (destresses the connective tissues around the affected muscles).
What is Sports Chiropractic?
Sports chiropractic involves assessing, diagnosing, and alleviating sports injuries. A sports chiropractor is trained to help both recreational and professional athletes improve muscle tone, balance, and athletic performance.
A sports chiropractor near you can help you recover from an existing injury and reduce the risk of similar injuries in future. Sports chiropractors use a wide variety of chiropractic techniques to relieve or prevent pain caused by a specific activity, reduce tension affecting muscles and ligaments, and improve balance, posture, and range of motion.
Sports chiropractors use hands-on spinal manipulations to realign the spine, ribs, and extremities. Your chiropractor will also educate you on the proper way to move your body to avoid injuries.
In the first meeting, your chiropractor will ask you several questions about your lifestyle and your medical history. They will perform physical tests and order imaging studies. Once they gain an in-depth understanding of your condition, they will design a customized treatment plan.
Your treatment can include joint manipulations and recommendations for exercises that improve flexibility, strength, and range of motion.
Sports Massage Therapy and Sports Chiropractic: A Match Made in Heaven
There are several benefits of combining chiropractic treatment with massage therapy. Combining both methods will fast-track recovery. They work very well together.
A chiropractor uses manipulations to realign the spine, ribs, and extremities and restore muscle and nerve function. Sometimes, however, the body is too stiff with muscular tension and can resist chiropractic adjustments. Sports massage therapy can help relax tense muscles.
When muscle tension is released, the benefits of chiropractic care last longer. Usually, people who combine sports massage therapy and sports chiropractic see better and faster results.
If your pain is due to a combination of muscle tension and joint dysfunction, your chiropractor and sports massage therapist will use chiropractic manipulations and massage techniques to target both problems.
Spinal stress resulting from a sports injury can cause sciatica, leg pain, and tingling sensation in the shoulder, arms and legs. Chiropractic care and massage therapy can address these problems and restore your energy naturally.
Chiropractic care and massage therapy can boost your immune system, restoring your body’s natural ability to heal. Both chiropractic care and massage therapy are drug-free and non-invasive. When performed by an expert, both chiropractic adjustments and massage therapy are safe.
Generally, chiropractors recommend getting a massage before seeing a chiropractor. Massage therapy loosens up stiff muscles, helping improve the effectiveness of adjustments. For many patients, a massage first can help alleviate minor discomforts that they experience after an adjustment.
Look for a professional with extensive experience of helping individuals with debilitating joint pain break the vicious cycle of pain and spasm.
Massage therapy and chiropractic care can also be used together to manage pain resulting from an injury sustained in a car accident or any other traumatic event.
Debilitating joint pain keeping you up at night? Let Ascent Chiropractic help you fight pain. We use a wide variety of chiropractic techniques to improve spine conditions and disorders. To make an appointment, call 206-241-3836.